TV host and author Art Linkletter, known largely for hosting
People Are Funny and House Party in the 1950s and '60s, which
highlighted humor of ordinary folks, died Wednesday (May 26), according to the
Associated Press.
He was 97.
Linkletter died at his home in Los Angeles, his son-in-law,
Art Hershey, told the AP. Linkletter had been ill "in the last few weeks time,
but bear in mind he was 97 years old. He wasn't eating well, and the aging
process took him," Hershey said to the AP.
Art Linkletter's House Party, one of television's
longest-running variety shows, debuted on radio in 1944 and was seen on CBS-TV
from 1952 to 1969. A popular segment on the show, "Kids Say The Darndest
Things," spawned the TV show of the same name, headlined by Bill Cosby and
featuring appearances by Linkletter as co-host. The prime time People Are
Funny began on radio in 1942 and ran on TV from 1954 to 1961.
Linkletter was born Arthur Gordon Kelly on July 17, 1912, in
Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
